mikepost - Slashdot User

Submission + - The Physics of Jump Rope (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit on Wednesday November 02, 2011 @11:44AM

sciencehabit writes: Last year, Jeffrey Aristoff and Howard Stone, mechanical engineers at Princeton University, were at the gym waiting for a pickup game of basketball. To warm up, Stone started jumping rope. As the rope whizzed over the head of his colleague, Aristoff wondered, "Is it known how jump ropes bend in the wind?" A few literature searches later, he concluded that the answer was, "not really." Now, the two have solved the problem themselves.

Submission + - 10k Raspberry Pi units available in December (geek.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 02, 2011 @11:26AM

An anonymous reader writes: A tweet appeared from Raspberry Pi stating the launch of the $25 wasn't happening in November as expected. So I decided to investigate further and contacted Raspberry Pi to see what was going on. Eben Upton was kind enough to email me back and give us some good and bad news. The bad news is, we aren’t getting the $25 PC this month as expected. But that’s where the bad news ends as it is still arriving in 2011 for some people.

Eben confirmed that an order has been placed for 10,000 units, but they won’t arrive until the end of November. That means we will see Raspberry Pi go up for sale in December, but it won’t be a typical “get as many out the door as you can” launch. Those first 10k are earmarked for programmers as software is desperately required before a full consumer launch.

Submission + - Gecko-Inspired Robot Rolls Up Walls (discovery.com)

Submitted by

RedEaredSlider

on Wednesday November 02, 2011 @11:05AM

RedEaredSlider writes: "We all love climbing robots. A group of researchers in Canada has decided to combine the mechanism geckos use to stick to walls with the simplicity of a tank tread. The result is a 'bot that can roll up smooth (and some not so smooth) surfaces. Such robots are easier to control than those that try to simulate walking directly."

Comment Seems obvious (Score 1) 109

by mikepost on Tuesday October 04, 2011 @05:07AM (#37596894) Attached to: Anti-Piracy PI Talks About Building Cases Against File-Sharers

Am I alone in always having assumed that this would be the case? In any litigation that I've ever been involved in everyone assumes that a compromise will need to be reached and so piles in every cost they can justify in any way at all, no matter how flimsy. The main aim of any initial filing is to raise the litigation risk for the other party, ie the amount that they would maybe have to pay if they lost. It forms a starting point for the negotiation over the course of the action.

Comment Re:Great news (Score 1) 163

by mikepost on Monday October 03, 2011 @01:53PM (#37591424) Attached to: Why Linux Is Good For Low-End Smartphones

Obviously low end phones will have to move towards basic smart phone capabilities just as they once had to start including address books and text messaging

I don't remember a time when a low end phone did not have text messaging? When exactly was this?

My first phone was in the States and only had 10 speed dial slots (instead of an address book) and no text messaging. It was called two way paging at the time and required a separate device and contract.

Wow, all of a sudden I feel old...

Comment Great news (Score 1) 163

by mikepost on Monday October 03, 2011 @12:53PM (#37590864) Attached to: Why Linux Is Good For Low-End Smartphones

In basic terms I don't see how anyone could object to this, it seems great. Obviously low end phones will have to move towards basic smart phone capabilities just as they once had to start including address books and text messaging, and linux is a good solution. The only worry is that Nokia, being a phone manufacturer, won't be making this cross-compatible so an opportunity for the android-of-the-low-end-phone is lost. It's still better than Meego!

Submission + - Google Adds 3D Helicopter View to Google Maps (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula on Monday October 03, 2011 @09:46AM

Zothecula writes: Those not content with a getting a 2D top-down or 360-degree street level view of a planned route using Google Maps can now enjoy a virtual flight over the route thanks to Google adding a new Helicopter View. The new feature, which currently only works in a full browser and requires the Google Earth plugin, lets users see 3D view, should come in particularly handy for walkers or bike riders looking for a more intuitive view of potentially tiring hills.

Submission + - World's most powerful telescope begins search for (extremetech.com) 1

Submitted by

MrSeb

on Monday October 03, 2011 @08:43AM

MrSeb writes: "The largest astronomical installation in the world is now operational. ALMA, or the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, is a vast radio telescope made out of 66 12- and 7-meter dish antennae situated 5,000m above sea level, in Chile. Its purpose is to seek out new life and new civilizations and to boldly go where no telescope has gone before. But no, seriously: its job is to peer into the past and investigate ancient stars and nebulae, peer at exoplanets that might support human (or alien) life, and hopefully learn more about interstellar creation and destruction. For now only 20 out of 66 antennae are in place, but when it is complete — late next year — it will have a resolving power far greater than Hubble, according to the European Space Observatory (ESO) that operates ALMA."

Submission + - Facebook Adds Malicious Link Protection (securityweek.com)

Submitted by wiredmikey on Monday October 03, 2011 @08:20AM

wiredmikey writes: As any IT security department knows, social networks pose a significant a threat to users across the board as they blindly click links which often lead to spam or other malicious sites that could result in malware infection.

In a move to further protect users of the world’s largest social networking site, Facebook is adding a new feature to help protect users from links to these malicious sites.

Starting today, when a Facebook user clicks on a link it will be checked against a database from Websense database to in an attempt to determine if the link is malicious. If the link is determined to be risky, the user will be given the choice to continue at their own risk, return to the previous screen, or get more information on why it was flagged as suspicious.

Comment Evit Cartel Opportunity (Score 2) 179

by mikepost on Monday October 03, 2011 @08:17AM (#37588490) Attached to: Verizon Challenges FCC's Net Neutrality Rules

I think that all of the net neutrality challengers should get together and head over to http://www.privateislandsonline.com/oceania.htm, where they could buy a volcanic island. Perfect for the super villain that has everything except an evil lair!

Once set up, /. readers could petition the local government to allow multi-tiered internet provision and drop all evil enterprises to the bottom of the list, throttling them back to dial up speeds! Mwha, mwha, mwha!!!

Submission + - 3 share Nobel Prize in Medine for immune system wo (nobelprize.org)

Submitted by alphadogg on Monday October 03, 2011 @07:09AM

alphadogg writes: This year's Nobel Laureates have revolutionized our understanding of the immune system by discovering key principles for its activation.

Scientists have long been searching for the gatekeepers of the immune response by which man and other animals defend themselves against attack by bacteria and other microorganisms. Bruce Beutler and Jules Hoffmann discovered receptor proteins that can recognize such microorganisms and activate innate immunity, the first step in the body's immune response. Ralph Steinman discovered the dendritic cells of the immune system and their unique capacity to activate and regulate adaptive immunity, the later stage of the immune response during which microorganisms are cleared from the body.

Comment Thank [deity of choice] for the dropped keyboard! (Score 1) 206

by mikepost on Monday October 03, 2011 @07:03AM (#37588254) Attached to: Amazon Disables 3G Web Browsing For New 3G Kindle Touch

Having had a few ereaders I liked the Kindle best, but the keyboard has always been a massive waste of space and an annoyance when holding it. I can see how using a cursor based keyboard will be annoying on the rare occasions that I search for a book or enter a Wifi key, but half the time I have the same thing on the current kindle when entering symbols. Considering that the primary use to which I put the device is reading, I'm delighted. Smaller, lighter, cheaper and less buttons to inadvertently press when I'm nodding off to sleep and fumble my ereader across the bedroom. Perfect! I'd make the same argument against the touch screen. The vast majority of the time spent with this device is while reading, during which the touch screen is just an opportunity to put finger prints all over the screen.

Submission + - Fcaebook files for a patent to track it's users on (uspto.gov)

Submitted by suraj.sun on Monday October 03, 2011 @06:05AM

suraj.sun writes: United States Patent Application# 20110231240

Communicating Information in a Social Network System about Activities from Another Domain:

In one embodiment, a method is described for tracking information about the activities of users of a social networking system while on another domain. The method includes maintaining a profile for each of one or more users of the social networking system, each profile identifying a connection to one or more other users of the social networking system and including information about the user. The method additionally includes receiving one or more communications from a third-party website having a different domain than the social network system, each message communicating an action taken by a user of the social networking system on the third-party website. The method additionally includes logging the actions taken on the third-party website in the social networking system, each logged action including information about the action. The method further includes correlating the logged actions with one or more advertisements presented to the one or more users on the third-party website as well as correlating the logged actions with a user of the social networking system.

USPTO: http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.html&r=1&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&S1=20110231240.PGNR.&OS=dn/20110231240&RS=DN/20110231240

Submission + - Verizon challenges FCC's net neutrality rules (thehill.com)

Submitted by GovTechGuy on Friday September 30, 2011 @04:38PM

GovTechGuy writes: Verizon filed an appea on Friday asking a federal court to strike down the FCC's net neutrality rules, which are scheduled to take effect on November 20. A federal judge tossed the FCC's previous attempt at enforcing net neutrality against Comcast last May and more legal challenges are expected in the coming days.

Comment A waste of space... literally (Score 1) 474

by mikepost on Thursday September 15, 2011 @04:22PM (#37413608) Attached to: Windows 8 Roundup

Having loaded Windows 8 and played with it I hate Metro as much on a PC as I did on a phone. Why, when everyone else is going for better integrated apps and therefore use of screen space, would anyone purposely make everything they do waste space constantly. I buy larger and more monitors constantly chasing the dream of as much viewable space as possible, now Windows 8 will eat up 20% of that immediately with crap running off the edge of the screen and try to force me into single, full screen apps. Madness.

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